ocity

On Christmas… December 31, 2009

A somewhat belated post pertaining to Christmas that I’ve been meaning to write.

There’s a few things that have happened, or happen at the end of December which are on my mind.

There was that climate change summit. Hundreds, if not thousands, of delegates and their support staff travelled to Copenhagen to talk about the climate. Journalists, reporters and protesters also travelled to report on the summit, protest about the summit, or protest about the lack of action, and to report on the protesters. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do a huge video conference type thing? And have a smaller carbon footprint?

Then there’s Christmas lights. And the competitions for the best displays. A few years ago, they banned a household from participating because they always won. The public were disappointed because they didn’t get to see yet another light display. The household was disappointed because they didn’t get to put up a display and entertain people. Why did the competition holders have to ban that household from putting on a display? Why not make it that the particular household could still put on a display, but was not entered into competition? That would have made more people happy.

And combining the two, we have the electricity carbon footprint to put on these light displays. I doubt that they were all solar or wind or other renewably powered lights. Aren’t all these lights a bit excessive?

And presents. Aside from the copious amounts of food that gets made and eaten, there’s the presents. The amount of presents that they report that the nation buys makes me think of A Brave New World, where every activity is driven by consumption. Games must consume the most amount of equipment. Nothing is recycled or reused. Givers give things that receivers don’t want. Why not ask, or give a voucher? Why not make instead of buy?